Halloween Wars

I'm not much for cooking shows, but I'm obsessed with watching Cake/Cupcake Wars.  And at Halloween time, I LOVE to watch Halloween Wars.  What these cake artists can do with pumpkin, sugar and cake blows my mind.  And I wish I had half the talent they do.

The last several years I've been watching this show, and it never gets old.  Each season the detail and displays get crazier and crazier!

My only question... what do they do with all that cake?!

Remember my post a little while ago where I taught a Pinterest Class for the spouse club I'm in?  Well I gave y'all a sneak peek at the cupcakes I made for it.  I mean you can't have a party and not have sweets right?  But then again I'm always looking for an excuse to bake!

I saw these cupcakes on Pinterest while looking up ideas for an upcoming Halloween Party I'm baking for.  And I had to give it a try!

I mean who wouldn't want to take a bite of some bloody glass cupcakes?!

I've never attempted to make sugar glass, but how hard could it be?

The recipe seemed easy enough.  And honestly it was, but it took a little longer (and two batches) than I thought.

To make this all you need is 4 simple ingredients that you can find in your pantry:
- 1 Cup Corn Syrup
- 1/4 Tsp Cream of Tarter
- 3 1/2 Cups of Sugar
- 2 Cups Water

You'll also need a candy thermometer, spatula, pot and a metal cookie sheet.  Throw all four items into the pot and turn on high.  If you start off low/medium, it'll take forever.  So take my word and start on high!

You'll want to stay near your stove, because you need to constantly stir with a rubber spatula.  Make sure to keep your candy thermometer in the pot the whole time to measure the temperature.  Once you hit 300° immediately take it off the burner and pour onto your metal pan so it can cool completely.  After it's cooled, drop the pan on the counter or take a meat hammer and smash it into shards!

For my cupcakes, I kept it simple with a french vanilla cupcake and buttercream.  I piped it using a star tip.  I used red icing with a few drops of brown and thinned it out until it was "soupy" like.  Using a small spoon, I splattered and drizzled it on to give it a bloody look.  Finally I topped it with my "glass" shard.

Needless to say, everyone was a little freaked out and thought I lost my mind!  Once they figured out it was sugar and not real glass they dug in!  I ended up with a few left over and took them home for my kids.  After about 2 days the "glass" melted into the icing.  Darn you humidity!

If you thought these were creepy, stay tuned!  I have a few more Halloween cupcakes to come!

XO - Beth

Hello Purple

I did it!  I mean I finally did it!

For years, I've been working up the guts to do purple in my hair.  I've gone blonde, black, red and every shade of brown that you can think of.  About a year ago I was having an emotional evening, (and yes I was totally PMSing) and ran to Target for some Ben & Jerrys and I grabbed a box of burgundy hair dye.  A pint of ice cream and 2 hours later I had beautiful redish/purple hair.  I loved it, but I wasn't comfortable with the looks people gave me.  Hello I had red and purple hair!

(Get my top here)

(When I had shorter burgundy hair)

I went back to being a brunette, and stayed that way.

Then I met a new friend who just moved to the area and happened to be a hairdresser.  Another friend of mine knew her and raved about her skills.  I was due for a trim (I swear I'm like the worst person when it comes to getting my hair trimmed on a regular basis), and decided to call and make an appointment.

The End!

LOL  Just kidding, but seriously if I had it my way, she'd be my hair stylist from here on out.  But being military, that's just not possible.

Anyways, I was telling her I love purple, but I don't have the guts to put it in my hair.  We decided to ease me into it, buy doing another burgundy in my hair.  But this time she did a faded in look, so I'm still a deep dark brown on top and it fades into burgundy.

And. I. Loved. It!

The best part was, my husband was so in love with the look too, he told me to keep it!

(Get my top here)

As with most hair coloring, it starts to fade.  When I mentioned I was going back to have color put back in, my husband was like go purple!

Spoiler Alert: I did!

I just love how in different lighting the color looks different.  In the shade its has a blueish tone, whereas in the light its more a redish tone.

I've never loved a color more than I do with this color.

(Get my green jacket here)

I find it funny that my lipstick matches my hair!

Have any of you tried a new look out and loved it/hated it?

XO- Beth